When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers.
故事從亞歷山大圖書館被付諸一炬開始。有一本書在大火中幸存了下來，但這不是一本貴重的書，一個文化程度并不高的窮人用幾塊銅板把書買了下來。

The book wasn't very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the "Touchstone"!
書的內容算不上精彩，但書中夾了一張小紙條，上面的內容還是挺吸引人的——關于試金石的小秘密！

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.
試金石是一種能把普通金屬變成純金的小鵝卵石。書中寫道，試金石通常與普通的鵝卵石混在一起，從外表看很難區分出來，但秘訣是當握在手里，試金石是暖的，而普通鵝卵石則是冷的。

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles.
這個窮人變賣了他為數不多的家產，購買了一些基本的生活必需品，在海邊安營扎寨，開始尋找試金石。

He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. – Cold. – Throw it into the sea. – Pick up another. – Cold. – Throw it into the sea.The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months.
他知道，如果自己把拾到的普通鵝卵石又放回原地，那他可能會無數次揀起同一塊石頭。于是，一旦撿到冷的鵝卵石，他就把它扔進大海里。就這樣，他撿了整整一天的石頭，也沒碰到一塊試金石。但他不氣餒，依然執著的重復著這套機械的動作——揀起一塊鵝卵石，摸到是冷的，扔進大海里,撿起另一塊，仍是冷的，扔進大海……日復一日，很快幾周過去了，然后幾個月也過去了。

One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.
然而有一天，大概下午兩三點的時候，他撿起了一塊暖的鵝卵石，但他習慣性地用力把它拋進了大海，等意識到扔出去的是一塊試金石時，已經為時過晚。他已經習慣了順手把揀起來的每一塊鵝卵石扔進大海，甚至當試金石出現時，也不例外。

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it's easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it's just as easy to throw it away.
機會也是如此。如果我們不時刻保持警惕，那么有一天，我們也會很自然地任由手中的大好機會白白溜走。